WMP Does NOT recognize m4a As Music

Fooling WMP into thinking that it's handling a normal M4A file did the trick and fixed the issue. I have included this fix in a new beta version of my WMP Tag Plus plug-in. This beta version can be downloaded from

http://bmproductions.fixnum.org/links/?linkid=2

After installing the beta, existing lossless M4A files in Other media will need to be removed from the library, and re-added (through Tools - Advanced

• Restore deleted library items). When re-adding, they should now appear in Music instead.

If you experience any issues with the beta then please report them here or by e-mail.

Tim [and others]

Kudos on your M4A solution.

Query:  The precisely identical problem obtains with MP4 videos.  They are in Explorer in the default Videos Library and will play in WMP when you double-click on the file BUT they will not load in the default WMP Video library!  Thus to all intents and purposes they do not exist in your WMP.:    I have a brand new W7 machine and simply can't believe this garbage.  At least the video plays and I can transfer the MP4 videos to my tablet and phone, which see them and play them with no problem.

Any possibility of a fix for this as well?

BTW, extremely nice of you to provide the fix you did as a public service.  I am sure many would enjoy sending you a token of appreciation.

I think the main issue is in:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MediaFoundation\MediaSources\Preferred

It lacks an entry for audio/m4a

I do not have access to WMP12 code obviously but one of the big things they did for it is to separate the library into a generic layer any Windows program can use.  WMP12 sits on top of that.  So in order to fix this the media library needs to behave.

The mp4 key seems to point to a mp4 byte stream handler, so duplicating it should fix it and then hopefully WMP12 will be able to use the audio/m4a to not be retarded and start treating m4a as proper audio.

Then heading back to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.m4a the content type of "audio/m4a" would actually match to something etc.  It would also need more editing to match its .mp4 equivalent.  Right now mine are quite different but my confidence in the registry's state is shot after various codec packs I have installed / uninstalled.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that it can't be fixed by simply editing the registry. WMP (or the Media Foundation MPEG-4 Property Handler) probably looks at the streams in the M4A file. When it finds a stream that it doesn't recognize (such as ALAC), the file gets added to Other Media.

At worst, Windows 7's built-in MPEG-4 tag support will have to be completely replaced.

Tim De Baets

http://www.bm-productions.tk

... m4a extension is not a supported file type of Windows Media Player...

That is correct.  It is not supported.  But our question is, how can we a) get it supported or b) get it to work via codecs + plugins for wmp12.  Yes we can go out and use google or bing to search for hundreds of articles on how much it is not supported and how much this sucks.  That does not change the fact that we need a solution, a workaround.

For instance, one can search and find recommendations to use http://shark007.net/ to get a codec that will play an m4a file containing lossless ALAC.  However this drops all those files into "Other media" tab which means you cannot see them by artist / album / genre etc or any normal way wmp12 shows a MUSIC file.

Or you can search and find "WMP Tag Plus" which lets you edit m4a files including ALAC, FLAC etc.

You can even mix and match approaches but you are still stuck with files in "Other Media" that play but are so unorganized they may as well not be there, or files that are organized under music but cannot play.

As a MS employee, we are hoping that you can actually figure out what it takes to make WMP12 play nice with iTunes lossless files.  What are the magic things we need to do to make them show up under Music so they can be organized and browsed as music files at the same time that they can be played.

Help us Suresh I, you are our only hope.